FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
December 9, 2015
Chair Charles Fegan called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Public Comments
1. Jennifer McCullough, President, Fairfax County Public Library Employees’ Association
Chair Fegan thanked Jennifer McCullough for her work over the years and work on the search committee and
wished her luck in the future.
Special Presentation: Community Survey Overview
Marc Futterman, CIVICTechnologies – Notes attached.
Minutes – Motion accepted to approve the minutes of the October 2015 meeting.
Chair’s Report
Chair Fegan thanked Ms. Millhouser for reviewing the Board minutes prior to final submission. Chair Fegan
thanked all for adjusting their schedules to be able to attend this meeting as the survey meeting and executive
session required an earlier start time. Also, the Board had requested the special presentation on the Lines of
Business which will be presented at the January meeting.
Since our last Board meeting we have had at least two meetings on the selection of the new Director. We chose
one and had our offer turned down. The chair was ill with pneumonia. Michael Cutrone has resigned. He has
been unable to attend most meetings because of his work commitments. We thank him for his service to the
Board and especially for his other commitments. Sheila Janega has been appointed to the Board.
The Survey Committee has moved forward and this evening a special report has been given to the Board. This
survey will help provide the base material for the strategic plan that the Board has sought to develop but could
not until proper data was available. Chair Fegan is thankful for the excellent committee that is in place to work
with our vendor to gather and analyze the data. After that, the Board must work on the long range plan that will
be tweaked every year.
Chair Fegan congratulates Mohammed Esslami for his appointment to the Virginia Library Board. Two members
from our library system are now on the board; the other being Kristin Cabral, a former member of the Library
Board.
There will be a very important executive session near the close of this meeting which will deal with personnel
matters. At the conclusion of this session, we will reconvene to the open forum before adjournment.
Chair Fegan thanked the community for their involvement with our library and wished all to know that the
Library Board is a volunteer group that serves without any pay. If the Library is to be a success, the Board must
deal with matters directly related to it. The staff must fulfill those duties for which they have been employed
and the community must respect both.
A staff survey has been undertaken at the behest of the Director. This will be used by the present Director to
pass on to the incoming Director for his or her use. This might or might not be tied in to the survey connected by
the Board.
Ms. Dando thanked the members of the committee for serving and said the biggest amount of commitment,
time and thoughtfulness is ahead of us but we had a very successful kick off meeting.
If any Board member has the letter with the kick off information, you can send your questions, thoughts or
concerns about our outreach effort to the email address in the letter. You will get a response and the planning
committee will collect those and discuss and address anything it needs to. In the meantime, if you have any
other specific questions you can always contact Priscille as well.
Committee Reports
A. Library Foundation – Mr. Jasper said the Library Foundation is still going strong. It hosted the Jubilee on
October 17, 2015 at Woodrow Wilson. It exceeded its goal of $150,000 by raising $197,000. It is doing
well and that is due in part to gifts from the estate of Betty Downard and also our own signature
sponsor, The Friends of the Burke Centre Library. Please make a note on your calendar that next year’s
Jubilee will be on October 15, 2016 at Dolley Madison.
December 15, 2015 is the application deadline for the next round of Continuing Education Scholarships.
All staff and volunteers are encouraged to apply.
The Foundation has appointed Abigail Fine as the new Director of Development. She has five years of
leadership development experience with nonprofit organizations. She graduated from the University of
South Carolina and has an M.B.A. from George Mason University where she was named the Outstanding
Graduate Student of the Year in her class.
Chair Fegan added that he hoped every Board member was contributing to the Library Foundation. You
can still take advantage of this before the end of the year for tax purposes.
Finance Committee – Karrie Delaney - no update. The Finance Committee will meet in January on a date
to be determined and announced to review the third quarter submission instructions.
Ad Hoc MOU Committee – Miriam Smolen - no update.
Director’s Report
1. Reston Town Center North Community Meeting Notes.
You have a variety of wonderful suggestions from the public at Reston that came from the meeting at
South Lakes High School on November 4, 2015. More than 100 people were in attendance to hear more
about the overall project. The audience was then broken down into small groups to discuss the shelter,
the library and the overall project. Suggestions and ideas were shared and captured in the documents
provided to you in your Board package.
Ms. Millhouser was able to attend and was in one of the small groups. She was impressed with
the level of community involvement and the pride and the excitement about a new library. She didn’t
expect that. The attendance was huge and it was quite heartening – we have a lot of support out there.
If only they would all come to the budget hearings.
Chair Fegan said that we were fortunate last year to have a good number of library folks at the budget
hearings and they made themselves known to the Board of Supervisors.
Ms. Janega also attended the meeting and said it was a great meeting. The Board of Supervisors
opening it up to the community was exactly what is needed to get people’s ideas. It is an exciting time.
Chair Fegan said it is also important for everyone to know that construction or first work won’t begin
for several years.
2. Library Journal Star Libraries Report.
The Board has had a chance to read the report and Doug Miller (Strategic Planning & Customer
Research Manager) is happy to answer any questions and give additional explanations on the study.
Miriam Smolen said this is her first time looking at this report and asked who writes it and can you give
her a sense of what it is.
Mr. Miller said that the Library Journal is a professional publication that has created an index by taking
data that is provided to them by the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services), a federal
organization that deals with library statistics throughout the country. Library Journal then takes the
data and puts it into their system to create an index score. They decided it was time to have some kind
of an index – as there have been a couple before such as the HAPLR (Hennen’s American Public Library
Ratings) index. This is the latest iteration that tries to grade out, if you will, the public library systems in
the country. They are up front about telling you it is not designed to tell you that these are the best
systems in the country. It is intended not to rate America’s “best and greatest” libraries, or to imply
that the data used in the Index can measure quality and excellence. Rather it is offered as another tool
available to libraries to help better understand how they compare to similar library systems. It
provides a different angle rather than simply looking at the statistics themselves. They take raw data
for four measures: circulation per capita, visits per capita, program attendance per capita and public
internet usage per capita. They divide the libraries up into financial cohorts and use standard deviation
to create the index. We are in the top funding category which is $30 million plus and even though our
budget is not $30 million they include the benefits package which puts us up over that threshold. In the
past when Mr. Miller has talked to staff about this index, they mention that they are confronted by the
public who ask why doesn’t Fairfax County Public Library earn a star in this index and the answer is “it’s
hard.” Only about 3% of all library systems in the country earn a star rating so it is not a simple thing to
do.
Ms. Smolen asked if Fairfax County is discussed each time the report comes out.
Mr. Miller said the report comes out annually and that there are over 7,000 systems that participated
in this index and our financial cohort has about 51 systems in it and they are ranked according to how
they grade out in their index. We were well below the three star level. They don’t talk about any
system unless they earn a star and they don’t go the next step and explain why they got a star. Their
numbers simply grade them out to the point where they were a top system such as the top 15 in the
$30 million plus category. There are many fewer systems in the $30 million plus group so only the top
15 earn a star.
Ms. Smolen asked if the attachments labeled 19, 20 and 21 were our summary of the data from the
journal report and Mr. Miller confirmed this. Mr. Miller stated that the article was also included in the
Board package.
3. Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library Renovation Update.
Mr. Clay announced that the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library will close to the public on January 31 and
that Dolley Madison will open with regional hours on February 3 with regional hours for the duration of
the project. A temporary Tysons location will open in March.
4. Kingstowne Library Water Update.
At the October meeting, you were provided a report on the Kingstowne Library water incident and
what happened in September. In the package tonight you will find initial procedures to help staff plan
and react should there be another water incident.
Ms. Levy asked if Kingstowne has a library disaster kit such as we had in the Virginia Room as they seem
to have water problems with great frequency. She suggests they look at a disaster kit in the Virginia
Room which is a big Rubbermaid tub filled with rolls of plastic wrap, paper towels and other supplies
needed that staff can grab quickly. Brian Conley may have put them together and can give more
guidance on them. It is a good thing for every branch to have. Ms. Levy asked if at one time we had a
disaster preparedness plan for the library system.
Mr. Clay replied that Fairfax County has a series of plans and that we are part of the County’s plan but
it doesn’t speak to this type of incident.
Ms. Levy recalled that there was training at the Virginia Historical Society and thought we had
developed a plan that everybody could use.
Mr. Clay replied that the plan is updated each year.
Vice Chair Delaney Executive Session - Vice Chair Delaney moved that the Board recess and go into
closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in Virginia Code Section 2.23711 and listed in the agenda for this meeting as follows:
Discussion or consideration of personnel matters pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3711(A)(1).
The motion was seconded and it carried by unanimous vote.
Vice Chair Delaney moved that the Board certify that, to the best of its knowledge, only public business
matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as
were identified in the motion by which closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or
considered by the Board during the closed session.
The motion was seconded and it carried by unanimous vote.
Chair Fegan noted that there were no Consideration Items or Action Items.
Roundtable
Mr. Donovan – no comment. Chair Fegan congratulated him on his new school.
Ms. Smolen – Welcome to Ms. Janega and she is happy not to be the newest Board member.
Ms. Millhouser – Ditto.
Ms. Delaney – Welcome to Ms. Janega and looks forward to working with her.
Mr. Jasper – Welcome to Ms. Janega.
Dr. Sirh – Welcome to Ms. Janega and thank you to the Planning Committee.
Ms. Levy – Welcome to Ms. Janega.
She missed the Foundation Jubilee but was in Madison, Wisconsin and visited the Madison Public
Library which is a new urban downtown library on three or four floors. They were having the Wisconsin
Book Festival that weekend. They had a marvelous big lecture hall that probably held 300 people and
this is something to consider as you are planning in Reston. She thought it was a really neat library and
they had great sculpture all over. If you ever get to Madison take a look at it.
Ms. Levy had a concern from a customer about the lack of programs for under two year olds
in our system. The customer has a grandchild in D.C. where there are programs for under two
year olds all the time. The customer said it is very difficult to find these in Fairfax County and asked
that we look into having more of these programs. Ms. Delaney noted that at Chantilly there
are the Bouncin’ Baby programs but they do fill up very quickly. The customer also
complained that she was unable to sign up when registration opened as they fill up so quickly
so obviously there is a need for more.
Ms. Levy congratulated Sondy Eklund (FX) on her math and science programs for children. She
has been doing some wonderful things such as robotics and she is very enthusiastic. These
programs bring kids in and it is very exciting to see libraries as a science and math place.
Ms. Levy said that in light of Jennifer McCullough’s talk on the County recently deciding to
close the whole day on Christmas Eve, she would like to move that the Board look again at
offering Administrative leave to staff and closing the library on December 26 and 27, 2015.
Ms. Delaney is concerned that the authority of the Board does not allow for this.
Ms. Levy said that the information Ms. McCullough received from Sue Woodruff would allow
for this. Mr. Clay said that he believed this information was incorrect, and we are trying to
verify it. Ms. Levy said offering this would be a huge olive branch to the staff saying we are
looking out for you because all other county employees get a long weekend and having to
come back on Saturday is difficult for staff. She believes this has been done before when
Christmas fell on a Friday and moves that it be done if legally possible. Ms. Delaney feels that
this is a personnel matter but supports the sentiment. She is not comfortable with the Board
taking this step. Mr. Fegan thinks the Board is getting into administration with this issue and it
is not our purview. Ms. Levy pointed out that when she was FCPLEA President 10 or 12 years
ago, they came to the Board with the same request and the Board was able to do this.
Mr. Fegan said that if the Board made a mistake before there is no sense in compounding it.
Ms. Millhouser is not sure, in terms of public service, if this is the signal that we want to send.
She thinks people would still want to come to the library on Saturday.
The motion was not seconded and did not pass.
Ms. Janega said she is happy to join the Board of Trustees. Mr. Fegan said we are very happy to
have you.
Chair Fegan adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m.
Member Present
Members Absent
Sam Clay
Charles Fegan
Karrie Delaney
Priscille Dando
Michael Donovan
Sheila Janega
Will Jasper
Suzanne Levy
Fran Millhouser
Dr. Joseph Sirh
Miriam Smolen
Darren Ewing
Donald Heinrichs
Respectfully Submitted:
_____________________
Edwin S. Clay III
Library Director
Approved:
_________________________
Karrie Delaney, Vice Chairman
FCPL, Board of Trustees
Memorandum
Date:
December 9, 2015
From: Marc Futterman, CIVICTechnologies
To:
Priscille Dando, Chair, Planning Committee
Katie Strotman, Customer Services Director, FCPL
Cc:
Julie Peterson, CIVICTechnologies
Nancy Davis, The Ivy Group
Ellen Roberson, The Ivy Group
Re:
Notes from December Library Board Project Kick Off Presentation
PURPOSE
These are kick off talking points presented to the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees and to be used
in conversations about the project, to get the Planning Committee, Board, and Leadership Team on the same
page with the same messages directed to the public, staff, advocates, elected officials and other government
officials.
As the project progresses we’ll revise, update, and supplement these to be current.
KEY POINTS

The project was initiated by the County Board of Supervisors through the Library Board of Trustees to
undertake an interactive project to solicit public and staff input about the future of library services.

CIVICTechnologies in association with The Ivy Group is the consultant selected to undertake the project.
Both firms have substantial experience in similar projects across the United States.

The project will seek information about public and staff perceptions about the Library; the types of
services that will meet current and future community needs, interests, and concerns; and how the Library
can better communicate its value to the citizens of Fairfax County.

The Library’s website will have more information about the project.

The project will seek public input through a telephone survey, website survey, three community forums,
seven focus groups, up to 20 stakeholder interviews, and five library advocate interviews.

Public outreach will occur in February and March 2016.

The project will seek staff input through an all staff website survey, 12 library department interviews and
creation of a Leadership Team. The Leadership Team is comprised of members of branch management
teams and department managers who will provide direct input through interactive workshops.

The project commenced in early December 2015 and is scheduled for completion in Summer or Fall
2016. Since the intention of the project is to maximize public and staff input within the defined scope and
budget, the schedule is somewhat adjustable so that there can be sufficient advance notice to obtain
public input.

The Project is guided through a unique process represented in the Project Roadmap which will be
available on the Library’s website.

The Board has the option of authorizing a strategic plan to be prepared as part of the process.

The project is managed by the Planning Committee of the Library Board of Trustees.

The Library’s contact person is Katie Strotman, Library Customer Services Director. She may be reached
by email at [email protected]

The consultant’s contact person is Marc Futterman. He may be reached by email at
[email protected].
FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
December 9, 2015
Special Presentation: Community Survey Overview, Marc Futterman, CIVICTechnologies
Chair Fegan noted that Priscille Dando, the chair of the Planning Committee, will moderate the
presentation and that Katie Strotman is also on the committee.
Chair Fegan asked Board members to limit their questions to just one tonight as we are limited on time.
Additional questions should be emailed to Marc Futterman whose email address is in your welcome
letter. Please copy Chair Fegan on these questions. All questions will be addressed.
Marc Futterman, CIVICTechnologies opening remarks CIVICTechnologies is a library consulting firm based in Los Angeles, CA. which works with public libraries
throughout the country on survey and outreach projects, such as ours, as well as strategic planning.
The Planning Committee of the Library Board is the specific body that CIVICTechnologies is working for
and directly responding to, and this committee is chaired by Priscille Dando and largely staffed by Katie
Strotman. Mr. Futterman thanked them both for the tremendous logistical work they have done so far
in getting the kick off meetings organized.
The Ivy Group is a sub consultant on our project. Attending from The Ivy Group were Nancy Davis from
Philadelphia and Ellen Roberson from Charlottesville.
Overview from CIVICTechnologies available at January 13, 2016 BOT meeting. Q and A below.
Nancy Davis - The Ivy Group will conduct public telephone surveys of 1100 randomly selected
households to include 300 cell phone users and 800 landline users. This survey will be for county
residents 18 and older and will be in English and Spanish. The same questionnaire will be formatted so it
is appropriate for a web survey which will be open to anyone who wants to participate. The focus will be
on satisfaction with services, interest in possible new services and opinions about facilities.
Ms. Levy – The City of Fairfax is a stakeholder and has a city council that is interested in what is going on
with the survey. It is important to include non-users in the survey and the telephone survey may pick up
some of those people, particularly new immigrants. In looking at some statistics, it looks like there is a
higher percentage of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the county than there are Latinos or Spanish speakers
by about 25,000 people. It is really important to reach out to these communities which have a lot of
different language groups but possibly be more fluent in English than some of the Spanish populations.
She thinks this is real important to keep in mind that they all be included.
Ms. Millhouser agreed and said in the Mason District branches the Vietnamese and Korean communities
are very much involved in the libraries and want to be involved.
Mr. Futterman said that in the Planning Committee meeting that was held just prior to the Board
meeting, a lot of time was spent discussing these issues.
Ms. Millhouser was disappointed that a closer look was not given to the foreign language population
and what the numbers really were and that we decided to sample, on a cost basis, a community that is
not the largest percentage of minority language speakers. She understands that we will try to make that
up by including them later in the focus groups and thinks this will be really critical.
Mr. Futterman said that part of the demographic and market segmentation analytics will address this. In
addition to the quantitative telephone survey which will be statistically valid in identifying non users, the
market segmentation statistics that we analyze combined with the library data will also help identify in
very small geographic areas where our non-users are. We can overlay that with other data and our own
local knowledge to identify ethnic or racial related communities.
Ms. Millhouser is happy that we will be using the ILS statistics in the process but is concerned that there
are services that aren’t going to be measured. She volunteers in the Virginia Room and that population
has a heavy use of non-circulating materials so measuring that service will be difficult. Statistics for the
people who come into the library and look at books but never check them out could be hard to capture
also. She wants to make sure these statistics don’t fall through the gaps.
Ms. Smolen asked if the meeting with the Leadership Team that week would be the only opportunity for
them to provide feedback.
Mr. Futterman said the presentation tonight to the Trustees, as well as the Leadership Team meeting,
would just be the kickoff. There will be plenty of time to address questions then and he will be going
into depth on things he doesn’t have time to tonight. Later in the process, such as in the community
needs and usage analysis, he will engage the Leadership Team in half day sessions where they will work
with the market segmentation data for their own library service area so the team can analyze the data
and tell us from their perspective what they are learning about their community. So there will be a high
level of interaction.
Ms. Dando asked Mr. Futterman to define “Leadership Team” as that was set up in the context of the
Planning Committee.
Mr. Futterman explained that the Leadership Team from the library staff includes branch managers and
department managers.
Chair Fegan thanked the Planning Committee that met for two hours before the Board meeting, having
done a lot of legwork before that meeting, and who will have their hands full going into the future. He
salutes them and is sorry Mr. Heinrichs wasn’t able to be at the meeting tonight as he has labored very
hard over the past months to get us to this point this evening.
Ms. Levy asked if we would be looking at old surveys to help develop trends.
Nancy Davis said that she was involved in the last community survey here so she is aware of that data.
We also tend to look at your results in comparison to other libraries that they have done survey work
for. So that if there is something that jumps out, it’s because we saw it in Des Moines or Georgia, so we
do have that broader context. Ms. Davis mentioned an online staff survey and Mr. Futterman said this
will be discussed at another time.
| Community Survey and Outreach | Project Roadmap | ** Authority *
A th it *
Board and Commission

Month2
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Month3
11
CIVICTechnologies
The Ivy Group
Create CEP
3
Research & Gather Data
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* Influence *
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Library Users
Non Users
Stakeholders
Advocates
At Large
Partners
Staff
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Opportuniities 
O
2
Conduct Engage Activities
17
Review Strategic Scenarios
Gap and Service Design
14
Create Strategic Scenarios
8
Comm. Needs & Usage Analysis
16
13
5
Prepare CEP Analysis & Findings
Facilitate Service Planning Workshop
6
Facilitate Service Workshop
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Month8
Adopt Strategic Plan
22
Review Draft Strategic Plan
Approve Final Strategic Plan
21
Develop Draft Strategic Plan
Finalize Strategic Plan
20
Finalize Plan Design Integrate Comments
Finalize Service & Strategy Model
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Plan
12
Focus Groups
Focus Groups
Community Forums
Community Forums
Telephone Survey
Website Survey
Advocate Interviews
Stakeholder Interviews
Site Visits and Casual Conversations
Facilitate Strategy Workshop
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23
Review R
i
Draft Strategic Plan
Develop Organizati
onal Impact
Finalize
Finalize Strategic Direction
Develop Organizati‐
onal
Analytics
Month7
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Strategy 
Analytics
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Collection
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Month6
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18
Review Opport‐
unity Analysis
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* Catalyst *
Month5
19
Facilitate Comm. Feedback
Actions 
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15
10
Formulate Project Team
Validate Process
Month4
Confirm
C
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Opport‐
unity Analysis
Approve Contract
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Optio
** Leadership*
L d hi *
Strategic Planning Team
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Implement FFairfax County P
Public Library Strrategic Plan > > >
Month1
May 12, 2015